User Comments - John
John
Posted on: How was your flight?
June 30, 2010 at 4:03 AM信息 (xìnxī) is correct. 息 can be neutral tone, but as far as I know it's never second tone. Where did you hear that?
Posted on: Outdoor Survivors (Part 1)
June 30, 2010 at 2:13 AMI've never heard that term used, although it's in my dictionary. Let's ask Connie or Jiaojie...
Posted on: NGO Guy
June 29, 2010 at 11:28 AMHmmm, how do we classify this enthusiasm of yours? Enthusiasm for lessons on different types of organizations? Tell us what it is you like, and we'll try to do more of it!
Posted on: Outdoor Survivors (Part 1)
June 29, 2010 at 3:53 AMI should add to Jiaojie's response...
There is overlap between 爬山 and "hiking," although obviously, 爬山 is strange if you're not hiking in mountains.
徒步旅行 could be "hiking" in some cases, but could also be "trekking" (like a multi-day hike through the wilderness).
The English and Chinese just don't match up in a nice 1-to-1 way.
Posted on: Fun at the Beach
June 28, 2010 at 8:00 AMbodawei,
Call it what you like, but in this case, it's scientific! The scientist observes and learns; he doesn't try to "correct" that which he is observing. This is true for physics as well as linguistics.
"Hippie linguistics"... this is an idea worth pondering. :)
Posted on: An Unplanned Tan
June 28, 2010 at 7:55 AMHa ha... Don't worry; I don't talk about Japan too often. :)
Posted on: Future fun with 会 (hui4), 要 (yao4), and 将 (jiang1)
June 28, 2010 at 4:06 AMTo add to Dan's answer...
You're more likely to use 要 when talking about plans, for example, if someone asks you, 暑假你打算做什么？ Then it would be very natural to say 我要去北京. This is similar to the way we use the present progressive for intended actions in English: "I'm going to Beijing this summer."
On the other hand, if some people were discussing your plans, and they doubted whether or not you were really going to go, you might use 会 to emphasis that you are, in fact, going (as Dan mentioned). You can add a 的 to the end of the sentence to further add conviction.
Posted on: Future fun with 会 (hui4), 要 (yao4), and 将 (jiang1)
June 28, 2010 at 4:00 AMHa ha, looks like we were both partially right... :)
Posted on: NGO Guy
June 30, 2010 at 8:57 AMYeah, I'm pretty sure it was your request which led to the creation of this lesson. We're glad you noticed! :)